Hon. Jacob Benjamin PHILIPPI

"Portrait and Biographical Record of the State of Colorado, Containing Portraits and Biographies of many well know Citizens of the Past and Present"
Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899
Page 890

HON. JACOB BENJAMIN PHILLIPPI, former register of the United States land office at Glenwood
Springs, was born in Findlay, Ohio, December 15, 1859, a son of John Jacob and Frances (Gross)
Philippi. His mother died when he was small, and while he had four half-brothers he was the only
child of his father's second marriage. From Germany, his native land, John Jacob Philippi came to
the United States in 1848, to escapte the results of his participation in the Revolution. He was
a tanner by trade and operated large tanneries in different parts of Ohio. Selling out there in
1872 he settled in Boulder, Colo., where he built a business block and embarked in the hardware
business with his sons. In 1876, accompanied by our subject, he visited Germany, renewing the
associations of his youth. Surrounded by every comfort it was his hope to leave wealth to his
sons, but unfortunate reverses arose, and when he died at Fort Collins, in 1884, the estate was
small.

When our subject went with his father to Germany he entered a school at Idstein, where he
studied for two years, but on account of his father's reverses he was compelled to leave school.
However, on his return to Colorado he took a course in the University of Colorado at Boulder. In
1879 he went to Leadville and entered the office of George E. King, an architect, with whom he
remained until 1880. Afterward he engaged in mining at Red Cliff until 1889, and from that time
until 1892 held office as county judge of Eagle County, remaining in Red Cliff until July, 1894,
when he was appointed by President Cleveland as register of the United States land office at
Glenwood Springs. This position he has satifactorily filled. Politically a Democrat, he was his
party's candidate for judge of Garfield County in 1898, but was defeated by a small majority. In
June, 1898, he married Florence E. Gardiner, who for some years previous had been a successful
teacher in this state. She is the daughter of William Gardiner, now of Garfield County, formerly
of Iowa.Contributed in 2009 by Pat McArthur